Shutters for windows and doors usually have a frame, mounted in the window or door opening, and rotatable louvres extending across the frame, from side to side. A control system is connected to the louvres. Moving the control system rotates all the louvres. In this way the louvres can be tilted open for light and air, or tilted up or down and closed for privacy.
Shutters have been made in this general pattern for hundreds of years. The rotation drive for control of the louvres, in the past, may be as simple as a push/pull bar. In more modern designs the side frames have been hollow, and a rotation control mechanism has been provided within the side frames. Such systems have been more or less satisfactory, for the purposes for which they were intended.
However, as the taste of consumers becomes more varied, and knowledgeable, there is a need for shutters in which not only are the louvres rotatable, but in which the louvres are also capable of being raised or lowered within the frame, somewhat in the manner of a Venetian blind, for example.
This freedom would be impossible with the old style push bar control. It is practically unworkable for most more complex concealed rotation control mechanisms.
The provision of both rotation control and raising and lowering control presents complex problems. In particular, while such dual operation may have been proposed in the past, the mechanism required numerous small parts, and complex operation. As a result, the cost of such dual operation shutters would have been too high for consumer acceptance. Making so many little parts would require many different tools. Assembling them would require much trained manual labour. Servicing such dual operation shutters, to correct faults would be costly. In addition to these obvious drawbacks, a shutter must be assembled with all the louvres lying in parallel planes. Achieving this arrangement with a complex drive system required great thought in the engineering of the shutter, and in selecting the appropriate spacing between adjacent louvres. Drilling of pivot holes in the side frames, to accommodate the louvre pivots, had to be selected and positioned to provide exact spacings for the louvres. Clearly if such shutters are to be acceptable to consumers, these problems must be addressed and dealt with in an effective and economical manner.
The invention does this by providing separate drive connector assemblies for each louvre which are made of only three components. Each drive connector assembly is moveable up and down within the hollow side frame.
At the same time the drive connector assemblies preferably provide pivots axes for each louvre.
This does away with the need for drilling pivot holes in the side frames. The side frames simply define longitudinal slots, through which the louvre pivots can access the drive connector assemblies.